more-in “I didn’t know anything about dance till she came,” says Rajiv Ramaswamy, pointing across the table to his wife, Aishwarya. “In fact I would make fun of what they were doing.” “Off the record,” exclaims Aishwarya, as she relates her husband’s funny explanations for mudras. Her recital is punctuated with “how was I to know?” and “no one explained things” from Ramaswamy. We are sitting in the boardroom of the Sreevatsa Real Estate office, on Mettupalayam Road, talking about Anjaraipetti, the couple’s new initiative to promote local talent. The third person in this venture is Sreeja Vijayanathan, a corporate communications professional. Ramaswamy traces the beginning of the initiative to a dance workshop that Aishwarya and her friend Chandana had done for a city school five years ago. Though they had a good response, they didn’t pursue it. Later, when they launched the restaurant, Lunch Box, at Sreevatsa Global Village in Saravanampatti, “we thought it would be a good idea to give local artists a platform to showcase their talent, especially as we had the space,” says Aishwarya. Ramaswamy points out that existing parks and open spaces are used for fitness-related activities and not for cultural events A workshop for children Even as they were mulling over what they could do, “Arumugam Sankaran from the Mango Education group asked if they could conduct workshops inside the Global Village,” recalls Ramaswamy. “Since the association there had some restrictions, I suggested they use the Lunch Box space instead.” It took a while but soon workshops became a regular feature. Buoyed by this success, Ramaswamy began to approach others “but people wanted to know who would market the event, whether they had to bring in the resource people... we realised that the need for another banner. We could not do these events under the Lunch Box.” This was when Vijayanathan came into the picture. “She had been to Mumbai and was very impressed with the Prithvi Cafe. So she suggested that we try to do something like that,” says Ramaswamy. That’s how Anjaraipetti was born. Untitled performing on February 14 Anjaraipetti’s first event on February 14 was a concert by an amateur band from Sree Ramakrishna Engineering College. “Most colleges have music bands, some have drama clubs. They don’t get much space to perform. So we thought of asking them to perform.” Aishwarya laughs, “In fact, when we invited this band, they didn’t even have a name; so they called themselves Untitled. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of their performance.” A scene from Shivanjali’s Poornima Mela Their next event was a collaboration with the Shivanjali Temple of Fine Arts. “I learn at the institute as do my kids, so it was easy to talk to them,” says Aishwarya. They also invited people who had never been to be such an event before. “A Carnatic concert or Bharatanatyam performance has the same crowd. We wanted to take this to those who did not have this experience,” says Ramaswamy. The programme was carefully curated. “I asked them not to do the usual alaripoo and jathiswaram,” says Aishwarya. “They performed Bharatanatyam, Odissi, traditional garba and other dances.” Sreeja chips in, “The musical part —an orchestra playing classical Hindustani music — was also lovely. Their explanations made it more interesting.” Apart from these events, they wanted to have value education classes through story telling. “All of us learnt from the stories we heard and read about. So we invited people associated with Chinmaya Mission to do sessions. Then someone from Art of Living also came forward to hold classes. So we have something for kids happening on weekends.” Vijayanathan is also holding a four-week workshop called Rediscover Reading. “The challenge was to get kids interested in reading,” she says. “Everything had to be activity based. Today not only do parents not have time, but we are also competing with gadgets. I felt the need was to have a sustained engagement and spread my workshop over four weeks. I was very surprised when we got people from Kinnathukadavu signing up for this.” All of them agree that distance will be a challenge, though Ramaswamy points out that Saravanampatti is about half an hour to 40 minutes from most places. “We’re willing to stand in front of the mall for that time for a movie but, when it comes to a cultural event, we start looking at time and distance.” While they have had plenty of workshops since the launch, there have been just two events. “We launched it at the wrong time,” says Aishwarya wryly. “It was too close to the exam time. We also need to identify artists who need a platform.” Finally I ask about the name. Aishwarya laughs as Ramaswamy raises his hand sheepishly. “We wanted to cover the five mediums of food, theatre/arts, music, culture and dance,” she says. “We were tossing names around and he came up with this one. It stuck.” A ready-made open air stage How it works Anjaraipetti events are held on the lawns of Sreevatsa Lunch Box, Sreevatsa Global Village, Athipalayam Road, Saravanampatti At full capacity, the space can hold around 550 people; 400 seated and 150 standing The only restriction is that the event be non-political. Everything else is welcome There is no charge for free events. If the events are charged, they take a percentage and, if the organiser wants, offer food for the participants, either as snacks and juice or lunch or dinner Those interested in staging events can contact Austin at 9847751853

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